Discover BORNEO: A Spice Merchant Adventure

Welcome to BORNEO, a thrilling board game that takes you back to the East Indies in the 17th Century. In this game, you will become a clever spice merchant, striving to rise through the ranks of your company. Your goal? Complete missions and earn as many victory points as possible. But watch out! The competition is fierce, and success won’t come easily. So, are you ready to embark on this exciting journey and forge your path to glory?

Let the Adventure Begin: Game Setup

Before we dive into the heart of the game, let’s make sure everything is set up correctly. Start by placing the game board in the middle of the playing area. Now, it’s time to sort the cards. Separate them into two groups based on the symbol on the back: shipments and harbors. Each player will receive three matching merchant cards, including a summary card that corresponds to their chosen merchant. Next, shuffle the shipment cards and deal three to each player. Finally, place the shipment cards in the designated space on the board.

When it comes to providing resources for the harbor deck, the number of players is key. If there are three or four players, we remove the harbors with a five on them. For five players, we take out the harbors with a three or four. Once that’s done, we shuffle the remaining harbor cards and put them on the board where they belong.

To figure out who goes first, the group decides. The chosen player starts by placing a merchant under a company in an empty space. Then, the next two players go in reverse order. If there are five players, we use all the missions. But if there are three or four players, we take out the missions with a five. We sort the missions by value and place them on the top part of the board.

Now, let’s get into the gameplay!

When we play the game, we take turns going around the group. Each player has a chance to do different things in their turn. First, they can finish a mission, change companies, or move up within a company. Then, they play a shipment card and give out spices. Finally, they draw two cards from the shipment deck. These steps happen in that order. Once a player finishes their turn, it’s the next player’s turn.

When someone finishes a mission, they put it in front of them. To complete a mission, you first choose one to do. Then, you have to get rid of all the spices in your warehouse that are needed for that mission. You can’t use the cards in your hand, only the ones in your warehouse.

If you’re playing this game, you have choices. You can switch companies or move up within your current one. If you want to move your merchant, just add them to a different company. But if you want to advance your merchant, you’ll need to attack a higher-ranked merchant. This is where the battle happens. The attacker picks a shipment card, and the defender has to play one of equal value to win. If they lose, the attacker gets promoted.

In addition to battling, players also have to manage their shipments and distribute spices. At the end of their turn, they draw two cards from the shipment deck and get rid of any extras so they only have six in their hand. The game keeps going like this until the end conditions are met.

GAME OVER

I want to tell you about how this game ends. There are two ways the game can come to an end. The first way is if the draw deck is empty. This is the deck where you get new cards during the game. The second way is if the harbor deck is empty. The harbor deck is where you get new harbor cards. When one of these things happens, the game is over.

When the game ends, each player gets one more chance to finish their mission. The player who is sitting to the left of the last player goes first. Each player will choose a mission and try to complete it using the cards they already have.

After all the players have finished their missions, it’s time to tally up the points. You get points for different things. Every shipment card is worth one point. Harbors are also worth one point. And the missions you complete are worth the number of points they say. So, if you finish a mission worth five points, you get five points.

The player with the most points when the game ends is the winner! They did the best job of completing shipments, getting new harbors, and finishing missions. So, remember to do your best and try to get as many points as you can to win the game!